1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for making a letter by a card in which individual expressions of a sender are important as in the new year card, the inquiry after his/her health in the hot season, and the Christmas card. (These cards are referred to as “post cards” hereinunder.) Further, the “making” of the post card herein referred to means all works starting from a creation of an image of the post card to the printing of the image on the post card.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The post cards are golden means for each sender to let his/her friends or acquaintances, mostly long neglected to write, remember him/her with an exhibition of his/her individuality, and therefore, it is strongly desired that they are designed by each individual creation. However, except those very limited persons who are daily executing the techniques suited for making the post cards such as the writers of comic pictures or illustrations or the calligraphers, it is very difficult for many people to individually create the post cards to be satisfactorily designed. Therefore, there are distributed various design collections for the new year cards or the like bearing prints of various pictures, patterns or letters prepared by the professionals, so that some of those pictures, patterns or letters are optionally cut out therefrom to make the post cards by a combination of them, with an addition of one's own writing, when desired.
As a post card making device convenient for designing post cards by a combination of those pictures or the like and printing, the applicant of the present application has once proposed a device called “PRINTGOCCO” (Trademark) which executes the post card making by an art of stencil printing, as described in Japanese Utility Model Publication Showa 57-15814. This device comprises a lower frame presenting an original placing tray of a size of the post card, and an upper frame connected to the lower frame to be pivotable up and down relative thereto, the upper frame having a glass window positioned so as to be laid over the original placing tray when the upper frame is closed upon the lower frame, wherein a stencil plate is mounted to the lower face of the glass window, and a flash lamp is turned on from the upper side of the glass window. By using such a device, when a desired image is designed on the original placing tray by assembling cut out pictures, letters or the like, then the upper frame is lowered toward the lower frame with a stencil plate mounted to the lower face of the glass plate to be laid over the assembled image, then the stencil plate is pressed upon the assembled image, and then the flash lamp is turned on above the glass plate, a stencil printing plate perforated according to the assembled image is obtained, to be able to make post cards bearing individually original designs even by an assembly of cut out pictures, letters or the like.
However, nowadays it has become possible to readily make an assembled image by assembling prepared picture elements, letters and the like in the display of a computer according to the developments of the image processing technique by computer. Nevertheless, the image processing by computer demands a basic knowledge with regard to the operation of the computer and a substantial knowledge and training with regard to the handling of the respective image processing software programs. There is a substantial difficulty in demanding such knowledge and trainings by the current middle and high aged people.
The matters concerned with the computer and various computer software programs are mostly mere matters of stipulation, not theoretically systemized. Therefore, they can be half habitually executed when daily practiced, while when not practiced for a while, the execution thereof is puzzling as the first time execution. The new year cards and the Christmas cards are made one time in a year. Therefore, even for those who are customized to send post cards for inquiring his/her health in the hot season, it is every half year to make the post cards. For those not daily practicing the computer, the operation of the computer, particularly the image processing by the computer after a half year or a year is every time a very difficult work.
Further, it is often desired to enter some words of compliments by one's own autograph in the new year cards, hot season inquiring cards or Christmas cards. This is not available in the computer display. Of course, when there is a scanner, it is possible to write such words by autograph once on a sheet and to bring them into the computer by letting the scanner read them. However, to do so the scanner is required in addition to the computer and the printer, and a further knowledge with regard to the connection and the handling of the scanner.
On the other hand, the developments of the digital color printing technique employing the ink jet combined with the computer are remarkable, with a steep increase of the quality and speed of printing, while the prices of the printers are rapidly lowing as inversely proportional. The benefits provided by such developments of the digital color printing technique should be widely and equally enjoyed as not limited to those familiar with the computers.
In view of the above situations, as a post card making device by which the art of assembling cut out pictures, letters or the like practiced with the conventional PRINTGOCCO is also usable to make the new year card, hot season inquiring cards, Christmas cards and the like, for those not daily familiar with the computers, while utilizing the ink jet digital printers whose performance is daily improving with their prices daily lowering, the present applicant has proposed by Japanese Patent Application 2002-266706 “a post card making device characterized by a combination of an original reading device having an original reading window of a size of the post card and an image sensor for reading an image exhibited to the original reading window to generate an image signal expressing the read in image, an image printing device constructed as a device separate from the original reading device to comprise a signal processing means for processing the image signal and a fine ink jet digital color printing means for printing an image corresponding to the image signal, and a signal transmitting means for transmitting the image signal from the original reading device to the image printing device”.
In the post card making device shown as an embodiment in the above-mentioned prior patent application, the original reading device having a housing of an external shape like a rectangular thick plate with an original reading window of a size of the post card in one face of the housing and an image sensor mounted in the housing to read an image exhibited to the original reading window to generate the image signal expressing the read-in image, is equipped with a cover plate hinged along one side of the rectangular contour thereof so that, when an image was designed on the original reading window by combining cut out pictures, letters or the like, the original reading device can be operated not to disturb the design. To do so, after the completion of a designing, the cover plate is turned along the hinge so as to be placed over the original reading window to press the designed original from above, not to disturb the design of the original. In this case however, for the original designed on the original reading window to be pressed from above by the cover plate after the completion, the original reading window must be a window opened upward, and therefore the original must be prepared toward downward. This is inconvenient for the designing work. When the original was designed on an optional plane surface such as a table surface or the like, the original reading device must be placed on the original with its original reading window facing downward, making it difficult to correctly position the original reading device relative to the original.
Further, since the post card making device is composed of the original reading device and the image printing device separate from one another, it is required to handle two separate devices in storing or taking out the post card making device, to be troublesome and requiring a care not to let the two devices separated from one another.